Produced by Coleman Hodges.
Reported by Anne Lepesant.
The fastest 800 to come out of the morning heats belonged to Michigan’s Gillian Ryan, who dropped 10.1 seconds to win her heat with 8:31.97. In the heat swum with finals,Haley Anderson of Trojan Swim Club took it out early, staying slightly ahead of the pack from out in lane 7. Top-seeded Lindsay Vrooman of Badger Swim Club and North Baltimore’s Cierra Runge went with her, but Anderson had the edge. At the halfway mark she was up by a second over Vrooman and by more than two over Runge.
Vrooman began her descent at that point, and began to close the gap with Anderson. By the 600 she had more or less pulled even, and she turned ahead of Anderson at the 650. Anderson responded with a 31-high and turned with Vrooman at the 700. Over the next 100 meters the pair traded stroke for stroke, but Anderson surged ahead flags-to-the-wall for the victory, 8:29.32 to 8:29.70. Runge finished third in the heat with 8:32.19; that put her fourth overall as Ryan held onto bronze from out of the earlier heats.
In her second national title of the night, Trojan Swim Club’s Haley Anderson won the 200 fly in 2:10.85. Anderson was fourth at the 100 but came back with a solid 1:08 to overtake the field. Just behind her was Venezuela’s Andreina Pinto with 2:10.95. 16-year-old Taylor Pike of Razorback Aquatics, whose 2:10.70 in prelims put her at number 12 on the all-time list, went 2:11.52 for third.
